


Following the Ghost Lights

by IrisofParadise



Series: Domestic AU [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel
Genre: Kitchen Irish (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisofParadise/pseuds/IrisofParadise
Summary: Will o' the Wisps: something deluding or a misleading goal. Though some say that the will o' the wisps can lead you to your fate.In which two little girls born into the mafia family find friendship in each other.
Series: Domestic AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1510844
Kudos: 1





	Following the Ghost Lights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gangstertogangster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gangstertogangster/gifts).



> Sean Riley could be considered a 'soldier' as his position in the mafia. He's fallen out of favor with Nesbitt and is looking for a way to get back into good graces. His family life is a disaster at this point. Shauna Riley is his daughter. Both belong to @gangstertogangster.  
> James McLaughlin's position could be considered to be the 'consigliere' and he is the adviser for Nesbitt. He is an immigrant from Ireland, his wife is from Scotland. They have triplets; Briana, Dillon, and Elinor. 
> 
> This is the first time that Shauna and Briana meet.

**_Hell’s Kitchen, New York_ ** **_  
_ ** ******_Clinton Church_**  
**_May, 1989  
_ **Shauna was bored. There were no fancy words to beat around the bush about it. The four year old felt as though she’d been in church all day and she was hungry and tired and most importantly of all, she was annoyed with her sisters giggling as they talked to a thirteen year old boy. 

Margaret and Shanon were only five and four years older than Shauna, making them nine and eight currently, and though they were still just girls, they were always flirting with boys and ignoring Shauna. 

It was a habit they were learning from their mother unfortunately much to their grandmother’s pure disdain. 

The little girl wanted to pull her hair out of it’s updo, annoyed with the curls that her grandmother had spent what had felt like the whole morning doing. The dress was starchy feeling and the lace itchy against her skin. And worst of all were the even itchier tights and shiny Mary-Jane’s on her little feet. Shauna hated everything about going to church. 

Shauna looked over to her left and saw her father talking to two other men, one blonde and the other brunette. Shauna wasn’t stupid, even if she was just four years old. She knew who the brunette man was.

Mr. Nesbitt. He was not only her father’s boss but the boss of everyone in the extended family. And from what she’d overheard from her parents, he was very quick to anger and traveled to Ireland a lot, leaving a Mr. Cooley in charge more often than not 

Whatever the trio of men were talking about, Shauna wondered if it was really so bad. Mr. Nesbitt looked amused. But a quick look at her father’s expression told the little girl that her father was infuriated and annoyed. Shauna couldn’t help but wonder what it was that they were talking about that had her father so angry.

Shauna leaned forward in the pew slightly, head tilting as she watched the men talk. She wasn’t sure how long she was watching the men but she was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice when another little girl began making her way towards Shauna’s pew. 

“Do you want to come play with me?”

Shauna jumped, a gasp escaping her lips. More from fear than surprise as standing directly in front of her stood a girl. A girl so pale she looked almost sickly with pale blonde hair and deep green eyes. At first glance Shauna thought that the other girl was a ghost. 

The girl blinked owlishly, a bright grin on her face as she patiently waited for Shauna’s answer. It seemed like she was used to people taking their time in answering her.

“Uhm,” Shauna trailed off, glancing back to her red faced father. A quick glance to her sisters who were still ignoring her in favor of fawning over themselves ridiculously for the stupid looking boy. Her mother was nowhere in sight. And more importantly, neither was her grandmother. So Shauna impulsively made up her mind and nodded. “Okay.”

The blonde girl grinned and let out an excited squeal. She took Shauna’s hand in her own and began leading the way out of the church to the garden outside behind the church. 

Shauna tilted her head, confused; she’d been expecting for the girl to take her out to the play area where most of the other children were playing.

“What’re we doing out here?” Shauna asked.

The girl let go of her hand and crouched down to look around in the flower bed. This was not much of an answer and Shauna began to wonder if the other girl actually was a ghost. Or worse, a demon sent to take her away from her family.

“I’m lookin’ for the will o’ wisp!” The girl said happily, without a single care in the world and sounding the complete opposite of what a demon should sound like. 

Shauna frowned, still confused but now feeling equal halves intrigued and annoyed. “What’s that?”

“It’s a faerie,” the blonde explained, handing a pink flower to Shauna. She dropped to her hands and knees once more and began to crawl into a bush, not caring one lick about the fact that she was dirtying her baby blue dress. “Come look! Come look!” She squealed happily.

Shauna frowned. If she followed this girl her tights and dress were sure to get absolutely ruined by the dirt. And if she didn’t follow, well, she wouldn’t know what was so interesting to the other girl. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her and she slowly crouched down to crawl under the bush to join the strange girl. “What?”

The blonde pointed to a circle of rocks. “A faerie circle!”

It wasn’t a real faerie circle of course, it was made of rocks not mushrooms, but to a four year old with a vivid imagination, well it may as well have been a real and true faerie circle. 

Shauna wrinkled her nose as she tried to recall what she knew about faerie circles. Her grandmother had told her and her siblings stories of the fae. It had just been some time so remembering the stories was rather difficult for the four year old. 

But once she did she reared back so quickly that she was landing on her backside, no longer in the bush but sitting in the dirt with wide eyes. “You’re crazy!” Shauna hissed out, looking around to make sure there were no adults around, her grandmother in particular. “Don’t you know that faerie rings are _dangerous_!”

The little blonde girl came out of the bush and shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe. But wouldn’t you just love to meet a faerie or elf?”

With such sound logic presented to her, Shauna found herself unable to disagree with the strange little girl. So she slowly moved forward so that she was back in the bush and helped look for more signs of the fae. 

Both girls were so entranced with their new game of finding something otherworldly that they didn’t hear as adult footsteps came closer to them until one of said adults was clearing his throat.

The girls jumped, knocking their heads into the branches of the bush and catching their hair on the branches.

Shauna winced as she reached up and yanked her bow out of the branches. Her grandmother was going to be very unhappy, and that was putting it mildly. Not only were her dress and tights absolutely mucked up, but now her hair was a frightful mess and her ribbon was torn. But seeing the look that her father was giving her as she slid out from under the bush made her wish that she were in front of her irate grandmother with the wooden spoon in hand. 

“Hi, daddy,” she said, hoping to make her father lose some of his irritation. Instead he just glowered down at her.

The blonde man from earlier was also accompanying her father. As was Mr. Nesbitt. 

Her father was clearly embarrassed that his daughter was causing a scene at church and in front of the extended family no less! But catching her in the dirt with his associate and boss, he was absolutely mortified. There would be repercussions for this type of nonsense, not just for the child but himself as well, he just knew it. 

It didn’t look good for the family to see his children acting like fools. It reflected very poorly back on him. 

Shauna looked down at her dirty Mary-Jane’s, mentally preparing herself to get yelled at any moment now. Her father rarely had patience for her or her siblings, especially when they did something that he deemed wrong.

It was the blonde man who broke the tense silence with a laugh of all things.

“Briana, what on earth are you doing?” The man asked with a heavy accent. 

It was just like her grandmother’s and made Shauna glance over at the girl to her left. Briana.

Briana grinned widely and jumped up, not caring even now right in front of Mr. Nesbitt, about her dirty dress and the leaves in her hair. 

“We’re looking for will-o-wisps, Daddy! Nora told me she saw one!” Briana explained in the same bubbly tone she’d had since asking Shauna to come play with her.

The blonde man sighed softly before crouching down to be eye level with his daughter. “Bri, darling…” he trailed off, clearly not wanting to ruin her imagination but knowing that she was far too naïve. He settled on patting the top of her head and plucking one single leaf from her hair. “Your ma tells you too many stories.”

Briana shook her head, cheeks puffing slightly. “I like ma’s stories!” 

Mr. Nesbitt laughed. “Ah, children. They have such imaginations, don’t they?” He clearly wasn’t expecting an answer and instead looked at his blonde comrade. “It seems that the young Ms. McLaughlin here has made a friend with young Ms. Riley, doesn’t it, James?”

The blonde man hummed in thought. Then stood back up to face his boss and Shauna’s father. “Mr. Riley, why don’t you come over tomorrow. Drop Shauna off so she may play with Briana. There may be a … position for you within the business.”

Though this may have sounded like an offer, it was clearly an order. A peacekeeping proposition to meet in the middle for their earlier argument. 

Shauna doesn’t hear how her father responds as Briana squealed and is suddenly hugging her and rambling about showing Shauna her room and how her ma cooks the best foods and they can watch movies tomorrow!

Shauna can’t help it, she giggles and nods along, happily agreeing with her new friend. The thought of having a friend makes Shauna giggle even more. She’d never had a friend before. Of course she had her sisters and her brother but Margaret and Shannon were more interested in boys and trying to appear older than they actually are now rather than playing with her. And Bridget just wanted to steal her dolls. Eoin was more interested in chewing on her doll’s shoes.

Having a real friend was exciting. 

Later, when Shauna was finally home, and in no trouble at all much to her complete surprise, she overheard her father excitedly telling her mother and grandmother that he had a job with the Irish again. That they were in the good graces of Nesbitt and McLaughlin. That with McLaughlin backing him up, even the Cooley’s were bound to come around. 

Shauna didn’t fully understand the business talk and so she snuck back down the hallway to her room that she shared with her two elder sisters.


End file.
